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The Market

Second-hand property availability is running at about 3% less than usual, says Douglas Newman Good, with homes in D6 and D6W the hardest to come by. The agency believes that market performance for the rest of the year will hinge largely on the actions of the European Central Bank, which is now likely to raise interest rates by 0.25% in June.

While such a rise on its own would not be a disaster, it may cause buyers to hold off for fear that the ECB might fire out further increases in the following months. Some economists believe the ECB could rack up interest rates by 0.75% over the summer, which would take steam from the market.

Some architects these days seem to take the view that the quality of new-home finishing is so poor that snag-list work — ironing out teething troubles in a new home — has become too troublesome to